The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer

Category: Monthly Book Reviews, News

Reviewed by Safiyyah S (Year 11)

I am not one to read non-fiction books and I most definitely would not expect me to say a non-fiction book is my favourite book- yet here I am. Unfortunately, I can’t say this book takes you to some magical world where shadow hunters and warlocks exist. Instead, it takes you to the harshest place I can think of- reality. Although this book is an easy read, it challenges us individually. The main gist of the whole book is that since our money can save lives in poor societies, we have a responsibility to hand it over. And I know that sounds extremely brutal but I can promise you that when you read this book, your eyes will be opened. I never considered myself a huge charitable person that donated constantly out of the goodness of my heart, but I thought I gave a reasonable amount. However, my opinions on a variety of topics changed whilst reading this book-including how I see myself. He doesn’t just say why we should be helping; he shows how we can do it and why our pitiful excuses to not help eradicate poverty when we clearly have the ability to, are wrong. Nearly ten million innocent children die each year from poverty-related causes>. 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day–the Starbucks tea I drank the other day is approximately someone’s salary for 4 days of work. If your excuse for not reading this amazing book is that it’ll make you feel guilty, fun fact-it’s supposed to. We all should feel some sort of guilt. I really recommend this book for everyone and I hope that we don’t ignore such a predominant topic that this book educates us on.

“If we are not to turn our backs on a fifth of the world’s population, we must become part of the solution.”